Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My audiogram. My hearing aids.

This audiogram is 4 years old. I have a newer one but haven't scanned it yet. My hearing has gotten worse in the 4 years but it still fits this ski slope pattern except that now I'm completely deaf in both ears at around the 3000 hz level.

Last year I got a pair of BTE Phonak Naida III SP. They are my 4th set of aids. They are the best aids so far, showing the biggest improvement from my prior set. The best thing about them is that there's no shrill feedback when someone hugs me, although that was kind of fun to see the reaction when the hugger pressed their head against my ear and my head emitted a high pitched squeal. I also like that they are self adjusting, so there's no fiddling with the aids when going from one environment to another.

In terms of hearing, I'd say it's about 25% better then my last pair of digital hearing aids - BTE Starkey - which were the "rolls royce" of hearing aids about 6 years ago (and I found the Starkeys about 10% better then my prior analog aids). The technology has improved and the cost has come down too - the Starkey's were $6000, the Phonaks were $3000.

When I got the Starkey's the Human Rights department at my place of employment paid for the whole thing (there was no government and employment benefit contributions because it had been less then 3 years since my last HA purchase). This time around (5 years later) I was turned down for assistance from the HR department, so after the government contribution ($1000), and my employment hearing aid benefit contribution ($350) and my husband's HA benefit contribution ($650), I was $1000 out of pocket.

6 comments:

SpeakUp Librarian said...

It's always interesting to see people's audiograms. I met a cool lady last fall who had a t-shirt with her daughter's audiogram results (post cochlear implant) printed on it. She was just so supportive of her daughter.
It's also interesting to know what kind of hearing aids people wear. Mine are BTE Coversa.NT by Unitron. I got them 3 1/2 years ago. I have nothing to compare them with as they were my first pair. A friend of mine got new aids that work with a Bluetooth device. I think I will look for that when I need to purchase my next pair (fingers crossed, not any time soon).

R said...

Hi SpeakUp Librarian,

It was your audiogram posted on your blog that reminded me that I had a scanned file of my chart that I could post. I too like to see other people's charts - gives me a better understanding of how much loss that person is experiencing.

Anonymous said...

Oh the darned dog. But speaking of hearing aids, mine are a pair of snazzy purple Phonaks. I think they are Elevas, but I'm not sure. I'm at home and I don't wear them at home, as both my brother and I are HOH, so we take our hearing aids off and yell at each other. LOL
My blog, by the way is Life with a Hearing Dog. Come on over when you have a chance. Oh - and I'm going to post your blog in my blog.

R said...

Purple BTEs, very daring. Years ago I remember someone selling BTE "jewelery". One of the pieces was shaped like a banana. I suppose one could say....'Sorry I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.' :)

viagra online said...

The audiogram represents the hearing of an individual with normal hearing in the low frequencies (pitch) sloping to a severe high frequency hearing loss in the left ear and a moderate to severe hearing loss in the right ear

hearing aid repairs boston ma said...

Nice to see audiograms of other people. I get to compare mine. And sometimes, I discover some new things because of it.